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Hearne v. State, 415 S.W.3d 365 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 2013, pet. stricken)
I'm old school. I still subscribe to "advance sheets" which are published opinions by the Texas courts of appeals. Normally I just flip through them to find criminal cases that have been reversed. It's tedious, but I like to track stuff like that.
I was doing that this morning when I came across this case. Hey, you legal gurus out there: Why do you spend the time and effort to appeal court costs of $234 when your client has been sentenced to prison for 15 years? No other errors were raised.
Edit: I got an email . . .
Hi Barry,
A reader of your blog called me today to ask about a case that I handled on appeal, Hearne v. State. Your reader wanted some information on the case and so I talked him through what happened with it and why court costs were the sole issue that was raised. I pulled up your blog and wanted to reach out to you to give you a fuller picture of the case.
For some background, I work in the appellate section of the Harris County Public Defender’s Office, where we have 10 attorneys who handle appeals. Around the time that I was appointed to the Hearne case, another attorney in our office was advancing the idea that there was a systemic problem in Harris County with the assessment of court costs against defendants. I’ll put you in touch with the attorney who is the leading thinker behind the idea to give you a more detailed explanation (I have CCed her on this e-mail, as well as my boss), but suffice it to say, there is a statutory requirement that clerk’s produce a receipt or itemized list detailing how the total court costs assessed against a defendant have been calculated. In Harris County, there was no indication that this was being done. On the judgment forms for defendants, the court costs section typically contains a handwritten number with no indication of how the total number was arrived at. Without a receipt or list of costs, there is no way to know whether the total court cost amount is accurate or arbitrarily assigned. Hearne was one of a number of cases where attorneys at the Public Defender’s Office argued that without this receipt or itemized list detailing the court costs, there is no evidence to support their assessment against the defendant. Although $234 dollars in a single case isn’t much, in the aggregate in a large county such as Harris, we are potentially talking about millions of dollars being collected without regard to following the court’s statutory duties to provide a bill and to comply with due process notice requirements.
As you might know, the First and Fourteenth courts of appeals have concurrent jurisdiction over Harris County. Cases that are appealed from Harris County could be assigned to either one. On the issue of court costs, the First and Fourteenth courts of appeals simply do not agree. That is, the Fourteenth has held that without a certified bill of costs contained in the record, there is no evidence to support the assessment of court costs. The First disagrees with its sister court for reasons that are made clear in the Hearne opinion. Currently, this issue is pending before the Court of Criminal Appeals in Manley Johnson v. State of Texas where the CCA will resolve the split between the courts. If I recall correctly, the Amarillo Court of Appeals also has sided with the Fourteenth on this issue, so it’s something that extends beyond Harris County.
Specifically addressing Mr. Hearne’s case, there was not a lot I could do from an appellate perspective. He had entered an open plea of guilty to the charge and received 15 years, with the sentence starting on February 24, 2012. No Reporter’s Record was created of any part of his case, meaning all I had to go off of was the Clerk’s Record, the majority of which contained the complainant’s medical records. Looking back, filing an Anders brief may have been the better decision. However, because the issue of court costs was still unresolved, Mr. Hearne may have been entitled to at least some relief, even if it was only $234 worth of relief. When a defendant is entitled to any relief, no matter how small, then appealing that issue is not frivolous and may indeed result in the rejection of an Anders brief. I truly do wish that there was something more substantive that I could have done for Mr. Hearne in his case. Appealing from guilty pleas in general is a difficult prospect. Compound that with the lack of a Reporter’s Record and any attorney on appeal is not left with much to work with.
I’m available to answer any other questions you might have. Jani Wood (né Maselli) might be able to offer a more details as to the technical aspects of the court costs issue as well. Feel free to contact me or to publish this e-mail if you’d like.
